The Unborn Victims of Violence Act
April 26, 2001
U.S. House Votes to Recognize Unborn Children as Victims of Crime
WASHINGTON – The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) applauded today's passage by the U.S. House of Representatives of a bill to recognize unborn children as victims of federal crimes of violence.
The Unborn Victims of Violence Act (H.R. 503) passed 252-172. In a critical vote, the House rejected, 229-196, a substitute measure (the Lofgren Amendment) backed by the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) and other pro-abortion advocacy groups. This "one-victim substitute" would stiffen penalties for interfering with "the normal course of the pregnancy," but enact the doctrine that there is only one victim in such crimes -- the mother.
"Lawmakers who voted for the one-victim bill will have to explain why they voted to say that, when a criminal attacks a pregnant woman and kills her unborn baby, nobody has really died," said NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. The bill explicitly exempts legal abortion, but "the groups opposed to the bill oppose any recognition that unborn children are members of the human family, even when their right to life is violated by criminal attackers," he said.
Displayed on the House floor throughout today's debate was a powerful photograph of Tracy Marciniak of Wisconsin holding the body of her son Zachariah, who was killed in her womb during a criminal assault. "Anybody who thinks there is no dead baby in this picture should vote for the one-victim amendment," said Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ). "But anybody who sees in this photo a grieving mother holding her dead son should vote for the Unborn Victims of Violence Act." (See or download the photo here)
In an April 24 written statement to Congress, the White House said, "The Administration supports protection for unborn children and therefore supports House passage of H.R. 503. . . . The Administration would strongly oppose any amendment to H.R. 503, such as a so-called ‘One-Victim' Substitute, which would define the bill's crimes as having only one victim -- the pregnant woman."
The federal bill would come into play only when federal authorities have cause to arrest someone for an offense against a pregnant woman in one of 68 already-defined federal crimes of violence, by also allowing them to bring a second charge if the attacker has injured or killed a second victim, an unborn child.
Twenty-four (24) states already have enacted laws that recognize unborn children as victims of violent crimes, and these states have been upheld by the courts. In the 1989 case of Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, the U.S. Supreme Court found no problem with a Missouri law declaring that "the life of each human being begins at conception" and conferring on the "unborn child at every stage of development, all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons . . .," as long as Missouri did not use this law to interfere with abortions.
For additional documentation on the issue of unborn victims of violence, including a state-by-state listing of laws, please see the NRLC website at www.nrlc.org.
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